Tatting Bracelets and evolving pattern

Hello Fellow Tatty addicts, I promised several months ago to show you how I evolved my first bracelet exploits. The initial pattern was taken from a lovely and easy to follow video by "onevirtuouswoman" via YouTube, and was done in DMC no 5 cotton pearle colour variations thread which was easy to see with my not so perfect eyesight and gave a lovely finish to the bracelet. I mentioned that I planned to evolve the pattern and produce several variations of the bracelet for friends as Christmas approached and I did just that including making some matching earrings to go with them.

My very first Tatted Bracelet

Once I was confident with the pattern I explored different threads and the addition of beads and crystals, and I loved the results as did the lucky recipients.I liked this pattern but thought it could look a little more delicate, and so I added four picots to each chain between the rings and also of course a girl needs a bit of bling at Christmas and s I added a crystal bead between each ring by threading each on onto the picot joining them together. The cotton became a little more delicate with Babyglo 10 in navy blue that I love to work with, the darker colour stands out well against the wrist, All in all I was very pleased with the result and a couple of these went out before I began to get more adventurous. 

 The bracelet was an improvement on the original pattern I thought and much more delicate but in the finer cotton it also became quite narrow and so I wanted to try increasing the width of the bracelet, and therefore instead of the simple chain finish I decided to duplicate the rings so adding extra width and intricacy but also allowing for extra bling with a second row of crystals....and what girl doesn't want extra bling! I matched this bracelet with some simple daisy earrings with a single crystal in the center to match the bracelet but would you know it I forgot to photograph them...... I will add them later when I get an hour or two to tat another pair.

We need to talk a little about starching at this point as I have had a few issues with this subject as have a few people I've seen writing about the subject. I tried using a recipe I found using PVA glue as a long time crafting mum you can imagine that I have plenty of PVA about the house, and thought it would be good to be a more permanent stiffener for jewelry, but when I tried it with the pearle cotton it darkened the colour and took out the pearle effect completely...I was left with a dark and matte finish that I really wasn't happy with and it seamed to take out some of the intricacy in the work too. I am certain it was partly down to my technique and need to practice with some scraps of tatting that we accumulate when things go wrong.......or is that just me.
Sooooo I have been using "Crisp" a spray laundry starch and the effects have been very good, although of course I have lost the waterproof effect and longevity of the PVA. Its easy to use and quick to dry....especially on a hot summer day here.
I have bought a lace stiffening product from Lincraft to try and will let you know the results, and the sugar water method I have avoided as living in Western Australia means living with several million ants who regularly troop through the old house we rent and I figured they might just eat my hard work!
Fingers crossed we will be moving into our own brand new house very soon and once that happens I may try the sugar water technique. If anyone has thoughts or experience with stiffening I would love to hear them.
I use cardboard and baking paper to prick out my work and find a clip board is great for providing a hard surface (rather than my leg) to pin to as its far less painful if you are heavy handed, and holds the cardboard and paper together well.

I hope you like the results of my little experiments......I'm working on a few more patterns at present, including plans for my very first craft room......I can hardly believe it's going to happen as its every crafter's dream but the new house has a spare bedroom and a cinema room, and my names one  those doors for a craft room.....fingers crossed!!!

Quilting exploits......a brief intermission from tatting for a special event

Hi Everyone, I have been meaning to do this for a while but it's been a busy few months in CraftyCati & Mousey Brown family, we have a new member who hopped in with the Easter Bunny on Easter Monday and has stolen all our hearts, little Harry is a very happy, smiley little chap and the news of his pending arrival caused me to put down my shuttles and needles and jump back into another craft I love in order to make him his first quilts filled with Nanna hugs to keep him cosy when I can't be there to cuddle him. 

Very Proud "Gram" Crafty Cati Snr with Harry Alexander 6lb. 1oz born on Easter Monday 2015

He's across the world in the UK with my son & his wife, big brother and sister Ben & Lily not too far away is Aunty Mouse who is officially assigned to give him extra hugs from "Gram" as I have now been nicknamed by his big brother Ben whenever she visits. Ben & Lily his twin brother and sister love Beatrix Potter stories whenever I visit and so Peter Rabbit and his friends were the theme for his nursery cot quilt and pram quilt.

This is his cot quilt put together with pieced pin wheels and backed in snippets of Peter Rabbit stories and adorable pictures for Ben & Lily to read him his own bedtime stories from. I used soft flannelette sheet for the wadding to prevent it being too heavy for him and it worked a treat, I will definitely use it again for baby quilts

His pram quilt was a collaboration of family members as we made a rag quilt, my first but quite fun to do. I took the squares already cut and pinned together with me on my big trip to the UK to be there for Harry's arrival and spend much needed time with my little family back home. I had a years worth of hugs to catch up on and took lots of crafting projects with me to do with Ben & Lily & Mousey too, we love teaching the little ones new crafty skills.

This little quilt was meant to be soft and cuddly and warm and I used a lovely minky fabric on the back with cheeky monkeys, the same flannelette middle layer and a piece cotton fabric of Beatrix Potter squares, with various characters in neat little squares. We hand sewed the squares in embroidery thread piecing them together before machine sewing together the squares, snipping the edges into a fringe and binding by hand in the same minky material.

As the monkeys wouldn't match up due to the seam allowances I preferred the abstract appearance that mixing them up created.

I started another rag quilt with Ben & Lilly for them to snuggle under together while watching their favorite films with the same minky mixed in with some dimpled minky and a few favorite cotton prints, to which we appliqued Ben & Lily hand prints and we will show you that later when its finished as Mousey is adding the finishing touches to that one.

Ben & Lily had their own quilts delivered last year both personalised to their individual interests

Ben loves anything with an engine, his favorite film "Cars" and his favorite toy is his trusty monkey so he has lots of cars, trucks, his monkey and his quilting was even his name Ben in machine stitching and appliqued to the top of the quilt.

 

And Lily loves everything related to Princesses so I made her a Princess & The Pea quilt complete with a button pea, and backed with a whole princess castle panel, edged in a prairie point edging, which was extremely easy added just the right finish for our own little princess.....of course the princess was Lily-Mai herself and had to be named in applique too on the foot of the appliqued bed. Lily loves plaiting hair and so the princess had a head full of blond thick woolen hair for Lily to plait, and ribbon.

I mentioned taking craft projects with me and as you can see there wasn't a lot of room left in my suitcase! However I did squeeze in a number of craft kits from my trusty Spotlight store for Ben & Lily to try in their Easter holiday. I thought it would be lovely for them to make something for Harry too and they loved every minute of the challenge. The kits were felt animals pre-cut to sew, stuff and decorate with everything you need in the kit itself including a plastic needle. They came out so well we decided to make them into a lovely mobile for Harry's room and the result was great, they are both very proud of their gift!

  

You might notice the 'frog' is one eyed, well there's a story to that his 2nd eye vanished during the crafting process but we decided he looked so much like Mike Wozowski from the Monsters Inc. films that we decided he had to be included.

Well I hope you enjoy my break from tatting as much  we enjoyed creating them, and I think we have set our little ones off on their own crafty adventures.....now back to Tatting & Hooking again!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snoooow

Helloooo there,

Ever so sorry it's been such a long time. The Christmas season is always a hectic one when you are craft mad, and mine was no exception. While I chose to buy the majority of gifts this year, there were still a couple that I made from scratch, and I loved every second of it!

I had all on to get any pictures to share with you. A combination of being waaaay too excited to finish them off, and every time I pulled out the camera the world seemed to dip into darkness, the kind of darkness that no matter how many desk lamps you wrangle together, It's still gloomy.

FINALLY there was a crack in the clouds and I pounced on that sunlight before it knew what to do with itself and voilà.... pictures! :D

So without further ado here we have the wonderful little Christmas wreathes in all their Christmas glory. Now I can't take complete credit for my work, the pattern and inspiration came from the lovely Sarah over at 'repeat crafter me' ( http://www.repeatcrafterme.com/2013/11/crocheted-snowball-wreath.html ) however I did tweak my design a little, leaving out the little bunting, adding a little less snow here and a little more snow there. All in all, I'm quite impressed with the results. And the smiles when they were opened made it all the more worth it :D

Each little frosty fella came together so beautifully!

The smaller one on the left was made using the pattern from 'repeat crafter me' and while he was absolutely adorable, he was just too small for my projects. However, He still got his dapper hat and scarf and I made him into an adorable tree decoration. 

The problem wasn't with the pattern, It's me... I crochet tighter than a tight thing on a tight day! Just ask mum! So I had to rework the pattern a little to accommodate my dinky stitches, but in the end, he came out just as lovely as the first :) 

Then came the heaps of snowballs, these were a little fiddly at first, but once you get into the swing of it, in no time you have enough for a mini snowball fight :D

...and the covering for the wreaths were hooked over a couple of afternoons worth of serious film watching and tea drinking.

Once I had decided to leave out the little strings of bunting, I knew I needed to break up all that blue with something..Cue the clever Mr Mouse. He's a bit of an inspiration ninja! you spend ages thinking he's busy doing something else and not that interested, when BAM!! he sneaks up on you with an idea that would make even the most seasoned crafter slap their forehead and say " WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?"  and that is how the melty snow along the top and bottom were born.

I wont lie, they were super fiddly to work out, I had to wing the design, working out how to get it to form in two different directions. but in the end, I thought they looked perfect. 

Well thought of Mr Mouse ;)

OH NO! after all that bragging about taking pictures, I've just realised that I never took one with the wreathes completely finished! Oh heck.  However, there wasn't an awful lot more added after this final photo. The snowmen each got a little carrot nose and coal for eyes, and their hats were trimmed with poinsettias, making them look rather snazzy indeed.

So there we go. All in all I think it took me almost two weeks of crocheting here and there to complete both wreathes and every second was well worth it. 

Christmas is always my favourite time of year for crafting, to be honest I'm hopeless with Birthdays, I forget them almost every year... but Christmas, that's my time to shine.

I hope you all had a wonderful time and I hope that if your stuck in the snow like I am, keep warm!! Pull out those lovely crochet blankets and quilts and rug up!

Toodles for now.

Mousey Brown XX